If all goes according to plan, wine from Kent County’s first winery, Crow Vineyard, will be ready to drink in spring of 2012. Friends and family were up early this past Sunday morning to harvest the the Vidal grapes Brandon Hoy and Brook Schumann have been painstakingly tending.
According to John Levenberg, the Crow’s wine consultant, the perfect combination of rain and sun the past two seasons resulted in the three acres of grapes, half Barbera and half Vidal Blanc, maturing a year early. The Barbera was harvested four days after the Vidal. This year the grapes were taken to Westminster Winery to be pressed and made into wine. By next spring, the Crows hope to have their facility ready, complete with tasting room, winery, and catering kitchen.
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The Spy received a crash course on grape growing and wine making from Levenberg, (picking clusters as he was talking.) He said it was, “Fantastic to see so many friends and family members come out to harvest,” and continued, “There’s always a struggle between the grower and the wine maker when it comes to harvest time. The grapes looked ready a week or so ago, but as a wine maker I said we need to wait.”
The vines are pruned back hard the first two years, the old growth cut back and the new trained to grow horizontally. Additionally, you want the grapes to all ripen at the same time, with the clusters positioned all on the same level. A portion of the leaves on the side receiving morning sun are removed,(a process called leafing), while those on the afternoon side, (hotter sun), are left on – again, to promote even ripening. “Growing grapes is a very pragmatic process,” he commented.
Levenberg paused to point out evidence of birds, a starling will peck at the grape, leaving a hole, while robins will take the whole thing. He said it has been a very bad year for bird damage, one of the vineyards he works with had their whole crop totally demolished.
The harvest needs to begin at first light, and the grapes pressed into juice as quickly as possible, as they start oxidizing as soon as they are removed from the vine. The colder the weather, the better, as cold slows down the oxidizing process. Hoy and Schumann halted briefly for a “blessing of the grape”, a tradition where the growers take a bite out of the cluster. Time was particularly of concern at Crow, as once the grapes were harvested, Hoy and Schumann would then truck them over to Westminster Winery to be pressed, a two hour drive. Levenberg kept checking the time, urging harvesters to “pick a bit faster.”
The fermentation process takes four to six months, requiring constant tasting and smelling to “point the wine in the right direction.” Although most wines ferment in a tank or barrel, the sparklers do their fermenting in the bottle.
The Crows expect to produce just under 100 cases of Vidal, and 94 cases of Barbera this year, blending their grapes with other Maryland grapes. A Vidal/Chardonnay blend, and Vidal sparkler should be ready this spring, with the Barbera/Merlot available later in the year. At capacity the vineyard should produce three tons of grapes per acre; one ton yields about 60 cases, which works out to about 540 cases of wine. Something to Crow about, indeed.
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Nueva Vista Consulting
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